Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-10
SATURDAY, SEPT. 10, 1887.
Ah0ut Education.

About Education.
Our schools of all degrees in every
State in the Union are either just
opened or just about to open for the
fall and winter work. While they go
nv the names of schools, colleges,
academies, seminaries and universi-
ties, they will for the most part for
get the real purpose for which they
exist. ignore the great, living present
of which they are a part, forget the
changes which have taken place and
which are in course of taking place,
and they will plod right along, like
dead machines, in the old beaten paths
cut out by living men of living thought
in an old past once pulsating with a
full tide of life, but now dead and for
gotten, or being fast forgotten outside
of school doors.
Not all of these places where the
seeds of thought are supposed to be
sown, to germinate and bear fruit,
will 90 on in this rut of blind custom.
There is here and there a real, live ed
ucator who is awake to the many
pressing duties of the hour in his
sphere of life. These will strip off all
the old accretions of centuries, brush
up their tools and get the rust oil
them. They will know that the real
business of the school is to develop
the latent powers of the child, and to
teach him best to use these powers in
the great battle Of life into which that
child must plunge, like diver into
the surf, right out of the school doors
The true educator will know
that there is a body with
varied and complex faculties, as well
as pure mind, in a boy or girl. He
will see to it that the body, as well as
the mind, gets proper development
and proper training. If a child is
kept day after day, for seven or eight
hours each, until he is nearly ole
enough to vote engaged like woman
in making his way through the last
leaves of a book, he will not have
body enough to hold his mind to
gether, and the philosophic teacher
will have come as near as any one tt
discovering the universal solvent; bu
as real work-a-day philosopher sale
of this solvent: "What good is it
What are you going to keep it in?
Moreover, even if SO disastrous re
suit as getting down to the disembodied
spirit does not result; if the boy, be-
cause of a good, healthy physique
succeeds in kicking his limbs about
sufficient to prevent their shriveling
ND like Hindu Fakir who has
"a vow in heaven"
Yet possessed though he be with
hands and other bodily appurtenances,
what is he going to do with them
more than an oyster which is all
stomach. He has learned no useful
thing to put his hand to. He has
learned much useful or otherwise to
put his mind to. 1t may be languages
he will never use. 1t may be
"ologies" he is sure to forget, De-
cause they are applicable to nothing
in his line of life. If girl, it may be
banging on the piano, the sole result
of which will be the disturb
ance of the nerves of any
gifted being who is unfortunate enough
to have an ear for music. The boy
NAV learn to "spout" "piece" or
two, which will make him available
at a political meeting in his ward at a
later period. But for his hands he
has learned no use. The result is the
high school graduate is lazy, and the
college-bred man cannot harness a
horse. nor drive one when it is hitched
The high school girl cannot make
bread or biscuit good for anything ex
cepting in time of war, when the
product of her industry might be val
uable either Extensively or the con
trary. The boy cannot go into al
office and be clerk, for while
he can write perhaps "fail
round hand" he does not know
one SYLLABLE of the forms OF business
He cannot fill out a cheek, or answer
letter inquiring the price of beans. He
may be able to solve algebraic prob
lens, or demonstrate the important
truths of comic sections. But he could
moi figure out the interest on a note,
nor find the corners of city lot with
. transit instrument. He may be able
to tell the names Of all the dried plants
in herbarium, but he is ignorant OF
the effects of weeds inan orange grove.
Right reverend and reverend doc